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Chapter 26
She checked another shirt, but it bore the same initials.
“…Then, was the passport fake too?”
Bada, who had been frozen for a moment, let out an exasperated laugh, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes.
‘In the end, I know nothing about you. Not even your real name.’
Sobbing, she began pulling shirts off the hangers indiscriminately.
This one, that one—every single shirt had the same embroidered initials.
“Ha…”
Even though the hint had been right in front of her, she had missed it.
‘No… maybe I just didn’t want to see it.’
Suddenly, the room seemed to lose oxygen, and Bada gasped, heading for the terrace.
Gripping the railing, she exhaled sharply.
“Haah…”
Finally calming her breath, she lifted her gaze.
The still-beautiful view of Bali stretched before her eyes.
The ocean below the steep cliffs sparkled more brightly than usual that day.
Just like the day she first saw him surfing on the waves.
Yet, without him here, the place felt as cold and desolate as winter.
Bada pulled the ring from her pocket.
The heart-shaped sapphire reflected the blazing sunlight, shining wildly.
It was too beautiful to be fake. Just like all the moments she had shared with him.
She wondered what she should do with the ring.
For a moment, she thought about throwing it away, but she shook her head.
‘…The ending may be the worst, but at least the moments we had together were happy.’
As she turned her body with that thought, she hit the metal table on the terrace, nearly losing her balance.
“Ah, ah!”
At the same moment, the ring flew from her hand, rolling across the terrace floor.
“No!”
She lunged for it, but the ring fell down the cliff connected to the terrace.
Bada quickly moved to the edge, searching, but there was no trace of it.
“Damn it.”
After pacing the railing for a while, she finally gave up.
‘Maybe it’s for the best. Every time I see that ring, I’d remember everything from this place.’
Resigned, she took one last look at the villa’s scenery before turning to leave the terrace.
It was time to go home.
Bada arrived at the airport with her luggage and immediately bought the fastest flight to Korea.
After boarding the plane and the waiting, she had no memory of anything that happened.
She had cried so much during the flight that her eyes were swollen, attracting concerned glances from the flight attendants.
She arrived home in a half-dazed, almost drugged-like state and slept nonstop for two days.
The first week was agony.
She deliberately tried to block thoughts of River, but questions kept looping in her mind.
Why did he have to leave without saying a word? There must have been a reason.
Even so, defending him in her mind made her feel pathetic.
On the fourteenth day, seeing herself in the mirror looking like a complete wreck finally snapped her out of it.
‘I can’t keep going like this forever.’
After that, she revised her resume and went to job interviews.
The pain didn’t fade immediately, but it gradually weakened in intensity.
A month passed.
Dressed in a suit, Bada entered a franchise café in the heart of Yeouido.
She had just come from a company interview. Waiting at the pickup counter, she stared out the window.
Seeing the sky thick with fine dust, her mood sank.
‘Back in Bali, the sky was so clear.’
It felt like falling from heaven to the ground.
This was already her third interview.
The previous two had made it to the final stage, but both had ended in rejection.
‘That’s strange. They seemed like they wanted to hire me.’
She recalled what the interviewer had said during the second interview.
‘I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this yet, but we really want someone like you. We only have the reference check left, so you should hear from us soon.’
Then why had she failed at the final stage?
Bada narrowed her eyes.
‘It must have been the reference check. They probably called my previous manager, and there’s no way he spoke well of me.’
Her former manager had gone berserk when she resigned, treating it like a betrayal.
‘Is reemployment really this hard these days? Especially in the IB sector, you know how small it is, you analyst?’
‘Did my manager sabotage my reputation? Is my career about to be delisted?’
As she exhaled a heavy sigh over the uncertainty of the future, the café employee’s voice reached her.
“Customer 46! Your iced Americano is ready.”
“Oh, yes, thank you.”
Just as she took her coffee, her phone rang.
The message came from an unknown sender.
This is Sarah Miller from the Royal Times. I’d like to request an interview regarding your recent connection to the royal family.
‘Ugh, I thought it was a message about passing the interview. Also, didn’t I get a similar message before? Some kind of new phishing scam? I should block it.’
Bada blocked the sender and instinctively opened her news app to scroll.
She wanted to review current affairs in case they asked questions related to the interviews.
Accidentally, she clicked on international news. The headlines were full of gloomy stories: terrorism, climate crises, trade wars.
Then one headline caught her eye.
“All killed in boat explosion off the coast of Indonesia.”
Bada’s breath froze.
Coincidentally, the date of the boat explosion was the same day River disappeared.
She laughed bitterly at the dark scenarios her mind was imagining.
“Wow… I really have a vivid imagination.”
She sipped her coffee, staring up at the sky.
Where are you, River?
Thinking that he might be alive somewhere under the same sky made her feel strange.
Since he disliked taking photos, not a single picture of them together existed.
Even if someone claimed it was all her imagination, there would be no evidence to refute it.
‘Does he even think of me? He probably already forgot everything.’
Bada wiped the hot tears from her eyes.
‘River is dead. Let’s just… assume he’s dead.’
Taking the subway, she arrived at Sindebang Station in the late evening.
Following the streetlights, she walked to her modest rented room, carrying a bag with rose tteokbokki for dinner.
‘I need to get home and eat this tteokbokki.’
As she walked quickly, a man stood under a streetlight in the distance.
Large build, hat pulled low—something about him felt unusual.
Tensing, Bada quickened her pace to pass him, when a low voice rang in her ear:
“Miss Yoo Bada. Did you have a good trip?”
